For now, none of them knew who was behind it or what their ultimate purpose was.
Fortunately, information remained in this underground storeroom. By investigating and sorting through it, they could gradually peel back the layers of fog and reach the truth at the heart of the incident.
But these so-called truths meant nothing to Solomon.
He had no interest in getting caught up in the protagonists' storyline. Getting the abilities he wanted and improving his strength would be his greatest gains.
After lingering briefly, Solomon found a reasonable excuse to part ways with the others, turned to leave, and headed straight back to his new home.
His apartment was near Vought Tower, on the twentieth floor.
Property around Vought International's headquarters was worth a fortune. Even a small apartment like this cost ten thousand dollars a month in rent, an astonishing expense.
But the expense was well worth it. Only by keeping his original body near Vought Tower could his duplicates move freely and operate without restriction from the tower's top floor to its underground levels, just within the 300-meter range.
Yes, the JS who had joined The Seven in Translucent's place was not Solomon himself, but merely a duplicate.
He was not foolish enough to enter Vought himself. Homelander was temperamental and obsessive, and no one could say what malice he might harbor the next second.
One careless mistake at close quarters, and Homelander could blast his head apart in an instant.
Fortunately, he now had Super-Speed Healing. This top-tier talent also applied to his duplicates. Even if a duplicate suffered a devastating injury, it would no longer perish instantly, greatly improving its chances of survival.
Solomon lay down on the soft bed and let out a long, stale breath, his thoughts involuntarily drifting back to when he had first crossed over.
When he first entered this world rampant with superpowers and violence, he spent every day in fear, treading carefully at every turn, terrified of running into a high-level Supe and dying a senseless, horrible death.
Yet in just a short time, by taking advantage of the opportunities that came from following the protagonists, he had undergone a complete transformation and gained the means to protect himself comfortably in this world.
Though his strength and defense were not top-tier, he possessed top-tier speed and unbeatable Super-Speed Healing. Even dying would be difficult.
More importantly, he held both Self-Duplication and Shapeshifting, allowing him countless duplicates and disguises at will. His ability to conceal himself had reached the pinnacle.
Even Homelander, with his unbeatable combat power, would find it as difficult as reaching the heavens to locate and kill him.
Moreover, though Homelander was invincible in combat, his mind was extremely unstable. He was obsessive, quick-tempered, and not particularly bright.
Solomon silently marveled that after crossing into another world, tagging along with the protagonists for the plot and picking up opportunities really was the fastest shortcut to growth.
Now that his duplicate had joined The Seven and could access vast numbers of confidential Supe files, improving his strength would only become easier.
He opened his superpower panel again and carefully examined his weaknesses.
To build up all his attributes and achieve breakthroughs across the board, he needed to defeat large numbers of ordinary Supes or directly harvest the attributes of high-level superpowered individuals.
At present, his advantages lay entirely in staying alive, hiding, and escaping. He was somewhat lacking in frontal assaults and burst damage, and could only overpower ordinary metahumans.
The two offensive attributes he most urgently needed to improve were strength and energy.
His strength was currently at level 1.8. He only needed to defeat three more Supes to steadily break through to level 2, bringing a small qualitative leap in his combat power.
Solomon thought it over. There seemed to be a few decent abilities coming up soon. Before long, Butcher would discover the designated hospital receiving secret shipments of Compound V.
If he remembered correctly, there seemed to be a baby there with laser eyes.
If a normal Supe had laser eyes, he certainly would not be sure he could win. But a baby with no fighting ability and no understanding of how to control its power was an easily claimed, risk-free opportunity for him.
Laser eyes!
Homelander's signature top-tier ability. He was determined to get it. He had to!
Unfortunately, Compound V was a secret restricted to Vought's upper ranks. He had no access to it at present, much less any way to find the hospital directly.
However, Vought also had an orphanage specifically for superpowered children. It housed many children who had awakened all sorts of superpowers, and there seemed to be a Supe child who could teleport as well.
Having sorted out what he needed to do next, Solomon wanted to test his healing ability.
He tightened his right hand slightly into a fist, and a sharp bone spike instantly sprang from the flesh of his wrist, gleaming coldly.
Then he slashed the bone spike hard across the skin of his own forearm.
The next instant, a crisp clink rang out.
The hard, sharp bone spike bounced straight off the carbon-fiber super skin covering his body, leaving not even a faint white mark. It could not penetrate his defenses at all.
Solomon gave a helpless chuckle. His strength level was too low. Even his bone spike could not break through his own defenses, leaving him unable to inflict an injury and test his healing ability.
He simply abandoned the idea of testing it. He could hardly blind himself or poke a hole through his mouth just to verify his healing ability. He was no masochist, and there was no need to make himself suffer just to test a power.
The ninety-ninth floor of Vought Tower, the area reserved for The Seven.
Dressed in a custom-tailored Translucent uniform, Solomon's duplicate slowly walked out of his private quarters and headed toward the conference room.
Just moments earlier, he had received notice that Homelander was calling a meeting of all members of The Seven.
There did not seem to have been such a meeting in the original story.
He entered the conference room with a puzzled expression. Everyone else had already arrived; he was the only one missing.
With a Stars and Stripes cape draped down his back and his hands clasped behind him, Homelander stood before the panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows, leisurely surveying the cityscape below. An air of overbearing superiority radiated from him.
The moment Solomon entered, his eyes were drawn to that ostentatious Stars and Stripes cape.
A specially shaped conference table stood in the center of the room. It was triangular, with its tip cut straight off to leave a dedicated seat at the head. That was the seat reserved for Homelander, captain of The Seven, symbolizing his unshakable central position.
To the left of the head seat sat Queen Maeve, A-Train, and Starlight in that order, each wearing a different expression.
The first seat on the right was empty. Beside it sat The Deep and Black Noir. Black Noir was still wrapped in his heavy black combat suit, sitting upright like a sculpture and radiating a chill that warned others to keep their distance.
Solomon raised an eyebrow and looked at the empty seat in surprise. He really did not remember Translucent's seat being so close to the head.
The footsteps alerted Homelander by the window. He slowly turned, a seemingly gentle smile instantly spreading across his face, and raised a hand to beckon Solomon over.
"Come, sit here."
Before you continue